With One Piece conquering the manga world and its anime continuously ramping up its impressive quality, its potential was still lacking in the gaming world. However, the prospect of being able to play a storyline cooperatively, really anywhere on the story’s Blue Planet was a tantalizing one. Thanks to KessCo and Toei Animation, One Piece’s board game future is bright.
One Piece: Dawn of Liberation is the closest thing yet to a bona fide D&D campaign for One Piece fans, and is debuting its first preview at PAX Unplugged between November 21-23, 2025 in Philadelphia. Beyond the opportunity for attendees to play the game at this convention, the game is scheduled for a pre-order campaign in March 2026.
One Piece’s New Game Takes Fans on a Cooperative Wano Adventure
Promising a storyline best played across multi-hour sessions, One Piece: Dawn of Liberation promises an engrossing storyline in which players can gather crewmates, amass materials, and complete missions on their quest to defeat Kaido. With the ruleset enabling paused sessions, it’s meant to be a campaign where players can save their progress and take their time.
This isn’t even the first time KessCo has created a One Piece board game, although Luffy’s Bento Panic is more of a party game where larger groups hoard their favorite foods. The company has an impressive array of franchise collaborations, too, with Hunter x Hunter, Spy x Family, Mega Man, and Sonic, to name a few.
“Our goal was to capture the spirit of One Piece in a tabletop experience that feels as epic as the story itself. Working with Toei Animation to bring this universe from screen to table has been amazing, and we can’t wait for fans to experience the adventure firsthand.”
– Alex Kessler, CEO of KessCo
Given the density of even just One Piece’s Wano Arc eclipsing the runs of entire other manga, this is a solid choice, and a true crowd-pleaser. After all, Wano is when the anime’s quality truly made its greatest strides, producing an emotional storyline, expanding the lore of Gol D. Roger, Zoro’s lineage, and the mystery of Nika.
One Piece Is a Perfect Franchise for the D&D Treatment
While a more traditional tabletop RPG campaign hasn’t been widely released on an official basis, that has hardly stopped fans from creating their own. In the grand tradition of homebrews, campaigns have emerged using the D20 system and even 5e D&D rule-sets like the fan-made Dungeons & Devil Fruits, and it’s hard to see why not.
Beyond the limits of Wano, there’s an entire seafaring world of strange peoples and characters that are ripe for an RPG campaign. While One Piece: Dawn of Liberation is certainly a step in the right direction, it might be worth revisiting the world of One Piece once the final chapters have landed, to fully capture the series’ scope.
Fans are willing to reread the manga, watch live-action and Wit Studio remakes, and play all sorts of licensed games for the love of One Piece. But to become a pirate sailing for freedom, one of the Marines as an agent of order, or one of the Revolutionary Army to change the world, is an enticing prospect.
- Created by
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Eiichiro Oda
- First Film
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One Piece: The Movie
- Cast
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Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Ôtani, Yuriko Yamaguchi
- Video Game(s)
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One Piece: Unlimited World Red, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, One Piece: World Seeker, One Piece Odyssey
- Character(s)
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Monkey D. Luffy, Roronora Zoro, Nami (One Piece), Nico Robin, Usopp (One Piece), Vinsmoke Sanji, Tony Tony Chopper, Franky (One Piece), Jimbei (One Piece)
